The first domino of the Rangers’ retool is on the verge of falling — and the Islanders are on the brink of adding to their blue line ahead of the trade deadline.
In what would be a rare trade between the Battle of New York rivals, the Blueshirts and Islanders are getting close on a trade that’d send defenseman Carson Soucy to Long Island, The Post’s Mollie Walker confirmed. Soucy, who was acquired from the Canucks last season in exchange for a third-round pick, has collected eight points in 46 games this season while averaging 17:13 of ice time. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent after the season.
Even at 31 years old, Soucy could provide a veteran boost to a banged-up Islanders blue line that — at the macro level — lost Alexander Romanov for five-to-six months back in November due to right shoulder surgery and, in the shorter-term, was without Ryan Pulock on Saturday due to an upper-body injury that has him listed as day-to-day.
The Islanders have struggled to fill Romanov’s spot in the lineup so far, cycling a handful of options through the lineup without sustained success, and Isaiah George, called up for their loss to the Sabres on Saturday, was seemingly set to get the latest chance once Pulock returned.
But that outlook could change if the trade with the Rangers — who host the Bruins on Monday — gets finalized.
It’d mark the first trade between the rivals since 2010, when the Blueshirts acquired 19-year-old defenseman Jyri Niemi from the Islanders in exchange for a sixth-round pick. The last one prior to that happened in 1972. At the start of a five-week stretch likely filled with plenty of selling for the Rangers ahead of the March 6 deadline, though, their brief trading history with the Islanders added another chapter.
The Blueshirts have more pressing decisions to make before the deadline. Chris Drury’s letter to fans, while insisting that it’d be a retool and not a rebuild, ensured that would be the case, if the Rangers’ positioning at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings wasn’t enough. Names like Artemi Panarin — who has already been told that he won’t be receiving an extension — and Vincent Trocheck and Alexis Lafrenière will continue swirling in rumors.
For now, though, everything has started with Soucy, as the Islanders, which enter play Monday in third place in the Metropolitan Division, tried to add depth ahead of a push to finish above the playoff cutline.
